as you can see - i've been showered with wedding love from the beginning :

cousin love

*this morning, i woke up to the sweetest message from my cute cousin, kelly, from alabama about my blog- she's precious and i have always loved her so much. i grew up babysitting her and her two younger brothers - we weren't just cousins- we were friends and grew up playing on our grandparent's farm/at our houses while our parents laughed & socialized- often :)

this wasn't the first time- she's posted a few times before ... so sweet and appreciated :)

she's an aMaZiNg artist - when i used to watch them, we would play 'art' every single time :)

it paid off.

aunt pam - her mom- who i also LOVE at my brother's graduation party in may 2010

we love her boyfriend, michael- he fits right in with our craziness, games, drinking, laughing... he's in school at auburn studying to be a vet/they are making the distance work- how cute are they?!

kelly- YOU are an inspiration to so many... and i appreciate all of your love and constant support.

throwback

last night ~

tim has had some very long and stressful week at bank of america lately (he was in the office until midnight last friday) so i called him up and offered to 'cook' for him last night- i had a lot of ideas, but after a really long week three months (this is our first free weekend since maybe january?!) i decided to pick up our favorite italian - chicken penne vodka- from mama ricotta's and wine/salad at trader joe's and we lit a candle and relaxed - a little cuddling/some breaking bad episodes- it was so wonderful. i could feel stress and pressure leaving my body... it was nice to be together and to not be running around ...

i fell in love with trader joe's in college when my dear college roommate/best friend in college, meme, and i would travel to cincinnati to buy soy nuggets (it helped that we were both starting to date guys in the area/matt is now her husband :) but yes, we would drive 45 min each way- haha) and it's been my favorite ever since. i adore whole foods too, but the prices at trader joe's are so fantastic/my strong love has been there since the spring of 2005 when i was introduced. *meme called me this week to tell me that she is coming to our wedding- she is due at the end of august and i am blessed and honored that her and matt are making the trip from chicago- i love you so much - congrats on your baby girl- you will be the BEST mom. xo

thank you joyner for the wine :) so good.

my favorite salad dressing of all time- i recommend- sold exclusively at tj's

this morning we have pandora blaring/i am organizing things that didn't get done from the week ... it's so nice to have a saturday morning free!

*we're off to look for our wedding bands later this morning :) and i FINALLY get to get my ring taken in- it makes me nervous how big the size is right now (especially when i am teaching- i feel like it's going to fly across the room...) - a result of my weight loss since last july- currently down 30 lbs :) wahoo. i haven't felt this great since high school! ... more on this on a later post- but talk about SUPPORT - esp. by my unbelievable co-workers!! always there for me. but tim is so excited for today and so am i~ it's crazy to think that we are going to pick out rings that we will wear forever... ...

this makes me think of charleston, south carolina- where he proposed on june 2 2012- so near and dear to our hearts- here is one of my favorite pics - taken in the summer of 2008 by my sister, jess - at the battery where tim proposed ...